Northrop Grumman is working on a digital twin of its Bombardier CRJ testbed aircraft and subsystems as part of efforts to accelerate the development and testing of new mission systems and capabilities across programs.
“Our Digital Shadow testbed will enable the rapid iteration and assessment of various mission systems configurations and trades via digital models across the entire lifecycle,” Roshan Roeder, vice president of airborne multifunction sensors at Northrop, said in a statement published Wednesday.
“Extending the digital thread and developing a digital twin of our test aircraft allows us to rapidly collect valuable data of our mission systems all while reducing cost, schedule and risk,” added Roeder.
Digital Shadow is a virtual multispectral integration platform that could enable the company to scale up experimentation and correlate digital models of sensors and other systems with their physical designs.
With Digital Shadow, the company can evaluate digital representations of fighter radars and other sensors in virtual environments to simulate existing and future capabilities and perform software updates in response to evolving threats.